<!DOCTYPE html>
<html>
<head>
<meta charset="UTF-8">
<title>"Betrayed" by Mythyk</title>
<style type="text/css">

body { background-color: #ffffff; }
.CI {
text-align:center;
margin-top:0px;
margin-bottom:0px;
padding:0px;
}
.center   {text-align: center;}
.cover    {text-align: center;}
.full     {width: 100%; }
.quarter  {width: 25%; }
.smcap    {font-variant: small-caps;}
.u        {text-decoration: underline;}
.bold     {font-weight: bold;}
</style>
</head>
<body>
<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/30132636">"Betrayed"</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/Mythyk/pseuds/Mythyk'>Mythyk</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>The Way We've Written Ourselves [4]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>HLVRAI - Fandom, Half-Life VR but the AI is Self-Aware - Fandom, Half-Life: VR but the AI is Self-Aware</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>A3:P3 Ending, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Eldritch Benrey, Gen, Hurt/Comfort, Minor Body Horror, Sweetvoice, fake flirting?, mostly comfort</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2021-03-19</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2021-03-19</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-15 16:41:05</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>General Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>1,503</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/30132636</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/Mythyk/pseuds/Mythyk</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>The Night/Sleep Time After the (avoided) Betrayal<br/>(A3:P3 Ending)</p>
<p>Not-Benrey and Not-Gordon primarily interacting, talking about the ramifications of what's going on. Also Not-Benrey healing and care moments :&gt;</p>
<p>(I’d recommend reading “Betrayal” before this for better context.)</p>
<p>CW: minor scratch, minor body horror (mentioned in passing), possibly suicidal ideation? (specified in end notes)</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Benrey &amp; Gordon Freeman, Benrey (Half-Life) &amp; Original Character(s), Original Character &amp; Original Character</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>The Way We've Written Ourselves [4]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/series/2072463</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>4</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>"Betrayed"</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Once everyone had fallen asleep, Not-Gordon looked over to Benry, who sat atop a stack of crates, somehow managing to be framed by the moonlight. The thought made it chuckle.</p>
<p>“Enjoying the view?” Benrey raised an eyebrow towards it.</p>
<p>They rolled their eyes in amusement, shaking its head. “Nah, man, not like that.”</p>
<p>“Shame,” he winked.</p>
<p>“<em>Dude!</em>” it exclaimed, trying to keep their voice low as they glanced towards the rest of the Science Team. Its face flushed with embarrassment, though they tried to force the heat away from their face.</p>
<p>Benry chuckled and hopped off the crates. They crouched low, looking down at its right arm. “Mind the roof for this?” Not-Benrey looked up to its eyes.</p>
<p>“Uh, guess not,” it glanced away, shifting uncomfortably under their gaze. “Gonna have to carry me again, though.”</p>
<p>“No problem,” they grew another set of arms again and picked it up, easily climbing back up to the blown-open hole in the roof. They carefully set Not-Gordon down, so that its back rested against the vents running atop the building.</p>
<p>It sighed, leaning its head back against the cool metal. “So, how do you want to go about this? Since it… didn’t really work last time.” They thought for a moment. “Do you need the HEV off?”</p>
<p>“Are you able to take off all of it?” they asked. “From your arm,” they quickly added, realising how their words sounded.</p>
<p>“Not really… the undersuit’s all one piece,” it explained. “But if taking off the plating helps at all, I can do that at least.”</p>
<p>They hummed. “Are you able to turn it off? So it doesn’t grow back?”</p>
<p>“Oh yeah, it did do that, didn’t it,” it remarked. “Uh, some control here,” it indicated the panel on its chest.</p>
<p>It fiddled with it for a moment, and then the suit announced that it was powered down. Not-Gordon let its hand fall, then turned to Not-Benrey.</p>
<p>“Try to, uh. Keep the undersuit attached at least a bit, okay?”</p>
<p>Not-Benry nodded, one finger shifting into a sharp claw, carefully dragging it through the black material. When they accidentally scratched Not-Gordon’s skin, it hissed with pain, supressing its urge to flinch. They paused to look at it, gauging their expression.</p>
<p>“It’s okay, I’ll be fine,” it managed to say through its clenched teeth. “I think it’s just. Particularly sensitive because of. You know.”</p>
<p>They nodded, but continued more carefully, hooking the claw so that they could rip more of the material with a motion of their wrist away from its arm. Shifting the claw away again, Not-Benry gently pulled the material further away from the injury. Not-Gordon bit the inside of its lip, its skin more sensitive than it expected from being confined in the HEV suit for so long. It could feel every point of contact they made with its skin. Softly, Not-Benrey sang out teal-to-green sweet voice, and a cool, numbing sensation wrapped itself around Not-Gordon’s arm. Tension it hadn’t realised it was holding released from its body as the pain faded away. It let its head rest back against the vent again, closing its eyes.</p>
<p>The singing stopped after a while, and Not-Gordon decided to test out its arm. It felt a faint soreness, but otherwise its arm felt like it had before it had been shot.</p>
<p>The other leaned back a bit, and asked, “Leg now please?”</p>
<p>Not-Gordon hummed, leaning forwards to unlatch the shin-portion of the boot, sliding it off before stretching its leg out again.</p>
<p>“Show hurt?” they turned their face towards Not-Gordon’s, giving a vague impression of a puppy dog expression, tilting their head to one side.</p>
<p>It chuckled a quiet, “You sound so much like Benry,” before running its hand along its shin, wincing when it hit not-quite-right-slash-repaired areas. “The whole thing is pretty bad,” it finally said, leaning back. “Watch for when I wince and heal there, I guess.”</p>
<p>It kept its eyes on its leg this time, watching as Not-Benrey carefully cut open the tight black fabric. Again, it was surprised by how sensitive its skin had become, and it couldn’t help the sharp intake of breath as Not-Benrey gently ran their hand across its skin. Thankfully, it was quiet enough they didn’t notice, and they gently let out their breath with relief. Not-Benry carefully tested different spots on its shin, watching for how it reacted and carefully singing lines of sweet voice as they worked. The pain ebbed and flowed more than their arm, though it remained more of a throbbing sensation the entire time.</p>
<p>As the last of the pain faded, Not-Gordon finally slumped over its propped-up leg, wrapping its arms around it and letting its shoulders drop.</p>
<p>“You good there?” Not-Benry rested a hand on their shoulder. It nodded, to which they continued, “You should probably turn your suit back on.”</p>
<p>“Mh,” it replied, blindly feeling across the panel, managing to successfully turn the thing on. Almost immediately, the HEV suit began to repair the torn undersuit, knitting back together into one uniform layer.</p>
<p>Without prompting, Not-Benrey put its boot back on.</p>
<p>“Oh,” it said distantly, “thanks.”</p>
<p>“No problem,” they replied.</p>
<p>The two sat there for a few moments, Not-Benry wiping away stray bits of teal and green from their face and then rubbing at the back of their neck. Not-Gordon watched them with half-lidded eyes, exhaustion creeping into their mind the longer the silence stretched.</p>
<p>“I, uh…” Not-Benrey started.</p>
<p>Not-Gordon hummed a wordless question, waiting for them to continue their thought.</p>
<p>“Back at- where the… betrayal, was supposed to happen, I.” They turned their head away, one hand staying on their neck, their arm partially hiding their face from view. Quietly, they finished their thought. “I almost let it happen.”</p>
<p>Its eyes opened wide and it sat up straighter, pulling its legs closer to itself. “You <em>what?</em>”</p>
<p>They curled further in on themself, letting out a strained, “I knew this would happen.”</p>
<p>“That <em>what</em> would happen?” Not-Gordon snapped. “You- <em>why would you even think that?</em>” Gordon questioned. “You knew I wouldn’t like that? Well of course I wouldn’t! And this time you <em>know</em>,” Not-Gordon emphasized, “for <em>sure</em>, you know that <em>my arm can’t grow back!</em>”</p>
<p>“It wasn’t like that!” they turned to face him. “And you’d have- you would have gotten a <em>better</em> gun.”</p>
<p>“I could have been <em>dying</em> from <em>infection</em> or <em>blood loss</em>,” Not-Gordon gestured wildly. “And- and you think that’s <em>better</em>?” Gordon asked. “Because of a <em>gun</em>?”</p>
<p>“Well, the gun would probably kill me better.”</p>
<p>Not-Gordon froze. It gaped at them, its entire body falling limp as it sat back. Not-Benrey avoided looking at it, keeping their eyes focused on the rooftop.</p>
<p>“You…” it started, then swallowed. “You are <em>still</em> expecting me to kill you?”</p>
<p>They continued to avoid its gaze.</p>
<p>“Hey,” it put a hand on their shoulder. “Hey, look at me, bud. <em>Look at me</em>.” It didn’t intend to use a harsh tone, but suppressed a wince as Not-Benrey finally met its eyes. “Why are you so intent on taking that route?”</p>
<p>They didn’t reply, but held a guilty look on their face.</p>
<p>It moved its hand to their cheek, searching their eyes for an answer. “You promised you’d try for a different route. So why?” it kept its voice gentle, genuine confusion flooding their words. “Why do you… why do you expect it to go that way?”</p>
<p>Their eyes watered, and they tried to pull away from Not-Gordon, who kept holding onto them.</p>
<p>“Please…” it looked as though Not-Gordon wanted to say something more, but it simply stayed there, quiet.</p>
<p>Not-Benry cracked, tears spilling over onto their cheeks as they fell against Not-Gordon, who let them fall as sobs wracked their body. Not-Gordon held them carefully, doing its best not to hurt them with the HEV suit. It rubbed comforting circles on their back, gently rocking them. It didn’t say anything more, waiting instead for Not-Benrey to decide when they’d speak.</p>
<p>“I- I don’t know it’s the game or- I don’t know I’m sorry I’m sorry I-” they began to ramble, sweet voice slipping from their lips as they spoke, a stuttering melody filtering out.</p>
<p>“Sh, it’s- it’s okay,” Not-Gordon comforted them. “I shouldn’t have snapped like that, I’m sorry.” It paused for a moment, watching the sweet voice float away. “I… I was really scared when it happened, and… I really don’t want… anybody to be the bad guy.” It pulled away, looking into Not-Benrey’s eyes. “And that includes you.”</p>
<p>They hiccupped slightly, more sweet voice being produced, and they wiped their eyes before saying, “You’re making it really hard not to fall in love.” Their head fell back onto its shoulder.</p>
<p>Not-Gordon let out a surprised chuckle. “I’m just being me, man,” it replied. “But seriously. Keep. Keep trying not to be bad, okay?”</p>
<p>Though slightly muffled from being pressed against the metal, Not-Gordon could make out their reply of, “Gotta impress my crush, huh?”</p>
<p>“Yeah, sure,” Not-Gordon accepted, “think of it as being good to impress your crush.”</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>Alright detailed CW: Not-Benrey grows extra limbs again and briefly has claws, implies that they might have an intention to repeat the original HLVRAI ending (Benry dies). Not sure if that counts as such, but I thought I'd warn.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>So.</p>
<p>I've been really into an rp, and I used Not-Gordon, Not-Benrey, and Gordon from here.<br/>Now I have Jeremiah, Elliot, and Gordon (RR to the players)... they're VERY different lore-wise.<br/>(Howdy bro, how do you like 'em here?)</p>
<p>Anyways I haven't written for this in a while, not sure if I have more tucked away? You'll probably find out in a week or so if I post more.</p>
<p>Also due to having written this a while back... huh. Sounds gayer than I remember.</p>
<p>If you enjoyed this, feel free to kudos/comment!</p></blockquote></div></div>
</body>
</html>